Clothesline



Feb. 95

A. W. PETERSON 'CLOTHESLINE Filed April 25, 1951 Zw" Pei 6219020, v

Mam

Patented Feb. 9, 1932 enirse sears-s ARTHUR W. PETERSON, or ALBERT any;town oLo'rHEsLInE Application filed April 23,

My invention relates to clothes lines. My object is to provide a clothesline which will not become sagged by use nor by exposure to the weather,but will always be taut; and will withal be slightly resilient andyielding to sudden heavy strains, so that when it is full of clothes andis struck by a sudden gust of wind, it will not be liable to break andlet the clothes down onto the ground.

This line, when used out of doors, is always drawn up tight and out ofthe way, so that it can be driven under when desired; and no centerprops are needed to keep the clothes 0d the ground, when a heavy washingis hung on the line.

Weather changes do not afiect the length of my line. That is, it willnot draw up and become tight in damp or rainy weather, and then lengthenout and sag in dry weather.

Heavy clothes hung on an ordinary line will stretch it, and thuspermanently lengthen it, but in my line the spring takes up the slackand thus keeps the line the same length, andalways taut.

'W'hen sudden or excessive strain is imposed on my line, the spring willyield and thus prevent permanent stretching, or possible breakmg.

A leading feature of the invention consists in aplurality of linesmounted on pivoted levers which are yieldingly connected together anddrawn toward each other at their inner ends, the yielding connectionalso forming a line upon which clothes may be hung.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction andoperation of parts, as will now be described and claimed, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a top planview of my improvement, in operative position, and:

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the same, with the pulleys omitted.

Then my device is used out of doors, I

' usually employ pulleys, as illustrated in Fig.

1 of the drawings; but when used indoors the pulleys can be dispensedwith, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

When used out of doors, the posts which support the device will be setin the ground; I

1931. Serial 110. 532,311.

but for use inside the house the device must necessarily be muchsmaller, and hence the supporting posts can be mounted on a suitablebase of any desired construction, so that the device can be moved fromplace to place in the house. If desired, the base n'iay be supplied withcastors, so that the device can be rolled over the floor even when hungfull of clothes, and can thus be moved up to a fire or stove after aroom has been vacated for the night; and can then-be moved to a diiien'ent location in the room when it is again desired to use the room in themorning. However, since the supporting base forms" no part of theinvention, no base has been shown in' the drawings.

Referring. further to the drawings,'the numeral 1 indicates the postsupon which the device is mounted. The'horiz'ontal en'd' supports 2 arerigidly secured to the posts by bolts 3. These end supports 2 are curvedoutwardly attheir central portions, and are channel-shaped in crosssection. The and sections 2a of each support2 are in alineme'nt witheach other, and carry the pairs of pivoted levers 4 in their channels.The pivot points 5 aremuch closer tothe' outer ends of the levers thantotheir inner ends, for a reason which will presently be pointed out.The" pairs of leverst at each end of thedevice are connected together byflexible loops 6; and these loops engage the central section 7 of theclothes line. This section has a spring 8 terposed between the twoloops; and in Fig. 1 of the drawings which shows the device as usuallyused out of doors, the central sec tion 7 hasat its ends pulleys 9"whichengage the loops 6. In the form of the device illustrated in Fi 2 I omitthe pulleys, which are not absolutely necessary to the construction. Theside lines 10 connect the-outer ends of the pivoted levers 4.

In operation, the natural tendency of the clothes to'sa g the lineis'resisted by the spring 8. If the weight of wet clothes wheii firsthung upon the line, is sufiic'ient-ly great to overcome the tensionofthe spring and cause the line to sag slightly, the spring willneverthe less take up the slackin the lineas fast as the clothes dry outand become lighter;

be driven under.

and when the clothes are entirely removed from the line, all slack iscompletely taken up, and the lines all stand taut and straight, and upout of the way, so that the line can However in order to prevent heavyclothes from ordinarily sagging the line, they are hung on the sidelines 10, and inasmuch as the pivots 5 of the levers 4; are much closerto the outer ends of said levers than they are totheir inner ends, thepull of the spring 8 (through the loops 6) on the inner ends of theselevers has a lever power on the lines 10 to hold them straight and taut.The lighter clothes can behung on the inner line 7, and thus a muchweaker spring is required by my arrangement of levers than if it had arigidly mounted pulley. at each corner of the device, with a continuousline passed around them and a spring in the circuit of the line.

The dotted lines 11 in Fig. 1, show how additional lines forhandkerchiefsand light articles may, if desired, be attached to thecentral part of the device, though ordinarily these additional linesform no part of my regular construction.

The pulleys 9 save wear and tear on the loops 6, and make the spring 8more responsive to sudden or unequal strains imposed anywhere on theline. v

When used inside the house, as for instance in a laundry room, my deviceis not dependent upon the posts 1, since the end supports 2 may bebolted to the walls as easily as to the posts.

.The curved central portion of these end supports 2 serves a doublepurpose or function, since in the first place it adapts them to beengaged by the posts 1 on their concave sides, as shown in the drawings,while at the same time keeping the posts out of the path of travel ofthe inner ends of the pivoted levers 4: as the spring permits them tomove back and forth. In the next place, these curved sections, when itis desired to secure them to walls, are secured with their convex sidesnext to the Walls, which in turn holds the pivoted levers 4 sufficientlyspaced from the walls to keep the walls from interfering with themovements of the outer ends of said levers;

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a clothes lineof simple and inexpensive construction which will always stand tautlikea new line, whether in use or out of use; and a line that is equallyadapted to indoor or outdoor use.

Having now described by invention, what I claim as new and desiretoprotect by Letj tersPatent is 1. A device of the character described,comprising opposing horizontal end supports; a lever mounted in theouter end of each support, whereby to provide a pair of levers for eachsupport lines connecting the outer ends of each pair of levers with theouter ends of the other pair; a flexible connection between the innerends of each pair of levers; and yielding tensioning means between saidflexible connections.

2. A device of the character described, comprising opposing horizontalend supports curved concavely toward each other; a lever mounted in theouter ends of each support, whereby to provide a pair of levers for eachsupport; lines connecting the outer ends of each pair of levers with theouter ends of the i outer'ends of each pair of levers with the shorterouter ends of the other pair; a flexible connection between the longerinner ends of each pair of levers; and yielding tensioning means betweensaid flexible connections.

4. A device of the character described, comprising opposing horizontalend supports curved concavely toward each other; a pair of leversmounted in each of said supports, the pivot points of the respectivelevers being at the outer ends of the curved supports and closer to theouter ends of the levers than to their inner ends; lines connecting theshorter outer ends of each pair of levers with the shorter outer ends ofthe other pair; a flexible loop connecting the longer inner ends of eachpair of levers; a pulley carried by each loop; and yielding tensioningmeans for connecting said pulleys.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

ARTHUR PETERSON.

